Fulcrum customers worldwide are using the platform to collect a huge variety of data in the field, and the dynamic, adaptable nature of Fulcrum allows the flexibility to build the exact tool for the job. Today we’re introducing a new feature to extend this even further: Calculated Fields.
Incorporating calculated fields
Adding calculated fields to your apps lets you write expressions that dynamically calculate values based on input from other fields. The expression builder tool provides these values within the interface, allowing you to use them for driving calculations efficiently.
It includes an extensive library of searchable functions, many of which will be familiar if you’ve worked with spreadsheet formulas. If you’ve used Excel or Google Sheets, you’ll recognize most functions and can apply them similarly in your calculations. Also included are several functions that are Fulcrum data-specific, giving you the ability to include in your calculations your record’s status, latitude or longitude, and more.
This enables many new ways to deal with field data, and output useful results to your field staff:
- Calculation of dimensions, areas, and volumes for site surveys
- Determining totals for supply and inventory applications
- Weighting and averaging for dynamic scoring
- Displaying summary text with concatenation
For users wanting to calculate more complex results from their data, calculated field expressions can be written in Javascript. This means you can write complex functions (and entire programs) to spin results out of user-entered data on-the-fly.
Calculated fields on all platforms—the web, iOS, and Android— are powered by the same expression interpreter, in an open source library on GitHub, so enterprising technical users can see under the hood at how our expression engine is put together.
Do you have a data collection process where you could use this new calculation capability? We’d love to hear more – chat with us on Twitter or send us an email & let us know at support@fulcrumapp.com.